Originally posted by: Nobody
I submit that there are three classes of fans:

-Those old enough to remember Star Wars as a stand-alone film.
-Those who grew up with the trilogy as a complete set.
-Those who grew up with the Special Edition and prequels.

For the first group, even the second two films were an intrusion of sorts. This is my father - he still insists that "Darth" is Vader's first name.

I'm in the second group. Han shoots first, damnit, but I don't flinch at the title "A New Hope," and I'm happy to tell you why a planet of Ewoks is better than a planet of Wookies.

As for the third group, that's my brothers, but I'm not sure there is much consensus opinion, apart from "Natalie Portman is hot." I defer to bkev et all.

Oh, and I'm 26.

I would fit into that second group, because I am too young to have seen the first film in theaters. But I sure grew up with them. There is a picture of me when I was two sitting under the Christmas tree with the Kenner X-Wing fighter my parents got me (it was missing the guns and canopy, so that must have got it at a garage sale or a thrift store), I still have no idea why they got me a such a toy at a such a young age. My dad or older sister who were both mild SW fans must have thought it was cool and decided to get it for me. Obviously they didn't let me play with it when I was two, or it would be in pieces by now. I have so many memories of that stupid thing, still have it too.

Anyway, my point is I easily fall into that second group, but I would never, even when I was younger, have attempted to justify Ewoks or explain why they were better than a planet of Wookies. Also I grew up with Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. A New Hope was never widely used (at least in my tiny corner of fandom) until the 1997 S.E. release. It didn't even appear on the box until the 1993 THX release. It was such a tiny part of the crawl most of us didn't even notice it, or if we did we didn't see it as that big of a deal.

In fact, for some odd reason I had about five or six Chewie figures, all with various levels of discoloration (those old Kenner figures had a tendency for that) and I would turn my Ewok village (I don't care what you think about the Ewoks, that was the coolest play set ever!) into a Wookie village. And since my Chewbacca's were all different colors thanks to that weird discoloring thing it they all looked different from one another. I would have much rather seen Wookies tearing Stormtroopers apart than seeing Ewoks thwarting men in heavy armor by throwing pebbles at them, something even at a very young age I make complaints about (kids notice things like that, I am sure I wasn't the first little kid to say "Hey, those rocks wouldn't hurt those Stormtroopers through their armor!"

Hmm, one quick question that maybe someone like Erikstormtooper could give me the answer to, he being our resident action figure guy and all.
Why did those old Kenner figure discolor so much? I guess it was the plastic they used, but two figures with the same date on the leg, and they were both entirely different colors. I remember my Luke's torso turned yellow while his arms and legs stayed white (obviously because of the different types of plastic). One of my many stormtroopers also turned yellow, while all my others stayed more or less white (though all clearly different shades). This is a mystery that has baffled me for the better part of my entire life, and annoyed the crap out of me as a kid.